


the moon and the sun

by actualmuseofspace



Category: Fame: The Musical - Margoshes/Levy/Fernandez
Genre: Character Study, Complicated Relationships, Could Be Canon, F/M, Friendship, Healthy Relationships, Metaphor, Mythology - Freeform, Non-Linear Narrative, Platonic Relationships, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 08:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14870703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualmuseofspace/pseuds/actualmuseofspace
Summary: If Serena is the moon because she becomes more beautiful by reflection, Nick is the sun because he cannot help but burn brightly.





	the moon and the sun

**Author's Note:**

> "and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant / and whatever a sun will always sing is you" [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e e cummings

“Nick,” she said. “Kissing you is weird.”

  
“Well, maybe you still have to go to college and forget all about me.”

  
“No,” she says, “Not a bad weird.” She pauses, pulls her fingers in a tiny stroke over her lips. She's not brave enough for her to say what she wants to, which is, "It's like touching the opposite end of a magnet together, a strange rush of wrongness." She's not brave enough, not read to face what she thinks, that they've manhandled their feelings to fit face to face instead of back to back.

  
He doesn't say anything in response, just pulls back the tiniest bit. Their breath collects between them, quietly filling space until he must take a step back.

  
"I know," he says after so long it seems out of place. "It's always been that way." She has no hair out of place for him to brush softly out of the way. Instead, he turns so their shoulders are against each other. "Let's go, Serena."

  
\--

  
Like Apollo and Artemis, they need each other even when they don't want to. They bookend each others' lives, keeping each other together when they feel like falling apart. At the beginning of time, when they still had overlap, their squabbling just reveals an understanding of security.

  
Nick and Serena don't get along perfectly at first. They diverge sharply from each other, craving different things. Sometimes, though, when you are facing different futures, you end up back to back.

  
They know the other is always there to keep them from going too far. This does not scare them. Serena keeps Nick from forgetting the newness. He keeps her grounded in the classics, in the moments.

  
Between the two of them, the world seems to make perfect sense. The world cleaves into two halves just for them, and they know they will always have each other.

  
\--

Serena is a girl made out of the moon. She is hung with stars in her eyes and wonder woven into her hair. Nick thinks they must have been cut on the seam between day and night.  
When they play scenes, she can't take a leading role even if she tries. It's not that she's afraid, it's that she shines brighter when someone reflects off of her. As partners, she constantly redirects it back to him. Her words show more about him than her. Nick finds it incredible, a talent he has never mastered.

  
In class, her brilliance is lost among those fast to answer questions, but in writing, in a moment of respite, she's clean and clear. She proof-reads all of Nick's essays and has never missed a grammar error.

  
Most of her critiques are concise; she delivers them with laughter. "You lose your thought, here, I felt as if I were drowning in your words." Serena appreciates brevity, in making your point with as few words as possible. She's always willing to play a sounding board, reflecting Nick's thoughts into a form more beautiful than when he gave them.

  
She's not quiet, but she's easily missed. She's an alto in a sea of sopranos, and they never notice her supporting harmony. When it's just her and Nick, sometimes he gets lost in her speech, in the things he's constantly trying to trace back to her. She smiles wide at him, when he says this. "Learning to hear the harmonies is the hardest part."

  
Serena is a girl made out of the moon. She was born with stars in her eyes and wonder woven into her hair, and she doesn't wish shine for her own merit. It's a talent, and she just is brighter for it.

  
\--

  
They're not two sides of anything. Their edges do not align. When they face back to back, it is not perfect but a shuffling that can leave them more distant than they were before. They don't always line up right and that's fine.

  
When Serena takes comparative religion, Nick takes investigative journalism. In a school like PA, there is little room for electives, so they don't waste time even considering taking the same one. They move in cycles, in orbits. Serena drifts farther away from Nick's center, finds something else to orbit for a while. They know they will come close together again.  
He always has her back, but that doesn't always mean the same thing. He knows this. She knows this. He doesn't let it bother him, because friends who can't stand on their own are the kind that hurt you too much when they leave. They don't have to worry, because Nick knows Serena will always come back.

  
Maybe that's why Mabel questions him with half a smile. She must see them and think they don't run fierce and together and like one when they want to. She must see them and think they can't possibly, because in order to, you have to go together cleanly. They don't need anyone else to get it.

  
They don't match. Not like Carmen and Mabel, or Goody and Porkchops. They don't match, and that's okay, because people aren't supposed to always match each other.

  
\--

  
Nick shines brighter than any light. He cannot contain it, doesn’t like the feeling of everyone looking and looking away. He doesn’t fit anywhere, and he doesn’t know where he wants to fit.

  
When he’s on stage, he can’t help but draw attention to himself. He doesn’t need a spotlight to seem like he’s giving a monologue. He goes on stage and he knows how to make the audience sees what he sees.

  
He may hate it, but he exists is someone who moves fast. He’s always first to answer, and he never stops to consider that he might be wrong. He speaks up about his opinions and is almost always listened to.

  
If they have debates in class, he always wins. He says something, rapid and bold, and that's all they'll talk about. He can't stop himself from speaking. He knows what he has to say. Serena doesn't mind letting him second her ideas, make them stronger. "I wish they would listen to you," he'll say, but that's not how it goes.

  
His world is fixed around a single point. It's something off center from him, something around which he must orbit. He knows this. He knows that he gives and the world follows, but they do not see where they are following him too. He just makes sure they're following the right thing.

  
Nick shines brighter than any light. He cannot contain it, craves people following him as much as he wishes they would look away. It doesn’t matter where he settles, because he can fit anywhere.

  
\--

  
Together, they're nothing but reactive. They can fill the gaps of any scene.

  
Off stage, they bicker when there's no one watching, but they seem to always make the edges work when someone calls them into question. Nick and Serena always finish projects together, because neither of them can finish it on their own.

  
Serena goes home with Nick after school most days, and they make fast work of friendship. Serena is a creeping vine who cultivates any space to fit her. Fitting her, Nick learns, means that there’s space for them in it.

  
Serena doesn't like the television, but she'll listen to anything Nick has to say about movies. She does her journalism homework leaning against him, listening to him dissect the current season of plays.

  
Together, they’re nothing but reactive. They work well together, in constant equilibrium.

  
\--

  
"Serena," he says. "Kissing you is weird."

  
"Well, maybe you still have to go off to college and forget all about me." She says it more seriously than him, like it's a distinct probability. He wants to laugh, but he can't let her believe that.

  
"Serena, I'm never leaving you. Promise."

  
"Yeah," she says, "I know," like the two things she said aren't at all contradictory.

  
"I can't do both," but as he says it, he knows it's wrong. He'll always have her back, but he knows she faces a different orbit. He doesn't have to forget her but he can let her go.

  
"Kissing you is weird," he says, because they are the moon and the sun, and they were never meant to meet.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. "man of my word," an Overwatch fic about promises, should be up the ninth. "anything at all," a study of Carmen Diaz, will be up in October.  
> (If you notice an error, please let me know.)


End file.
